


a kiss on the forehead

by displayheartcode



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Always a Different Sex, Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, F/F, Female James Potter, Tumblr Prompt, Useless Lesbians
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-12
Updated: 2019-01-12
Packaged: 2019-10-09 01:38:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17397632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/displayheartcode/pseuds/displayheartcode
Summary: Lily had finally hit a stumbling block in her Sixth Year.





	a kiss on the forehead

**Author's Note:**

  * For [womeninthesequel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/womeninthesequel/gifts).



Lily’s love for Potions faltered during her Sixth Year. After coasting with a low need to study, the ritualistic patterns coming easily to her with chopping ingredients and straining plants, she had finally hit a stumbling block. 

Her potion bubbled next to her in its small brass cauldron. The mixture frothed something brackish, the scent of mint too thin than what her textbook had described. This was the third assignment that month that refused to work with her, meaning she had swallowed her pride and asked Slughorn if she could use the lab after class hours. 

 _Careful, Miss Evans,_ he had said. _I would hate for you to end up like Matilda Ashlane._

The cautionary tale still made Lily grit her teeth. Matilda had been an expert prodigy in Astronomy before her burn out in her last year. According to rumors, she was now working as a low-level clerk in some small Ministry Department. 

 _I will not be like her,_ Lily vowed as she crushed Harpy feathers in her mortar. They crumbled in thick, flaky pieces. The leftover juices from straining moon-soaked Foxglove itched at the unprotected skin of her wrists.  _I will not I will not I will…_

“All right, Evans? It looks like you’re committing planticide.” Jamie, dressed in her Quidditch gear, stood by the classroom doorway. Normally, Lily would have been charmed by the sight of her girlfriend with her black hair in disarray, the goggles dangling from her neck, and cheeks flushed from flying, but she was a distraction.  

“Go away, Jamie,” she said. 

Jamie crossed her way to her with a fluid grace, the same manner most Pureblood children have been trained since childhood. She looked over Lily’s cluttered workspace, the smoky vials full of sludge. the ruined pair of dragon-hide gloves. The brown skin near her hazel eyes crinkled in worry. 

She asked, “Do you want to take a break?”

Lily scowled. 

Jamie tried a different approach. She reached over the worktable to kiss Lily’s scrunched up forehead. It was a gentle, almost knightly gesture coming from her. 

“I’ll wake you up early so that you can get the assignment done,” she promised. Jamie gathered Lily’s hands in her own and turned them over to inspect the slight burns on her pale wrists. “Before you set yourself on fire for a grade.” Her lips grazed at the edge of Lily’s injuries.

Lily peeled her gloves off, and she tossed them over her shoulder. “Take me away!”


End file.
